novelraw Chapter 365 - 317: Seeking Justice (4K)_2
Chapter 365 - 317: Seeking Justice (4K)_2
Yang Shijiu, not glancing sideways and dragging his lame leg, slowly stepped forward. Only after he had walked a certain distance did the Martial Monks behind him simultaneously complete their motions, staring blankly as their attacks poured into empty space.
Stones shattered and dust billowed. The Martial Monks responsible for maintaining the temple’s peace, the Precepts Monks that oversaw discipline, and Dian Zuo, who managed the Precepts Court—more and more monks surrounded Yang Shijiu. But around him, as if encircled by an invisible sphere, all interferences that entered its range were completely frozen solid, whether they were people or Magic Artifacts.
Even the three elders, previously guarding the Floating Tower, were unable to stop Yang Shijiu—they held Buddha Light in their hands but were stuck in place, unable to move, watching helplessly as Yang Shijiu brushed past them, laboriously climbing the stairs one level at a time.
The lengthy staircase was not easy for Yang Shijiu. He stood before the Grand Hall, bracing his knees and gasping for breath for a while before standing up and slowly saying, "Abbot Lian Nan, Liao Wu."
"Yang Shijiu," Lian Nan’s gaze was icy. "What exactly do you want?"
"Me?" Yang Shijiu paused for a moment. "I just want justice."
He turned around, looking at the vast crowd down the stairs, and said, "The Jialan Sect is based in Fen State. In a year, just the openly recorded income from its grain shops, carriage lines, brokerage, boat lines, taverns, and inns reaches six million strings of coins.
"And beyond that, there are the medical fees for treating various Jianghu folks, donations from pious men and women in each State Mansion, sales of consecrated Magic Artifacts...
"When added up, it is well over ten million strings of coins.
"Among the silver used for the renovation of the temple’s Golden Body, how much of it is the tears and blood of the common people?"
Yang Shijiu paused for a moment and slowly continued, "Throughout history, the common people’s burdens have consisted of three parts: taxes, corvée labor, and assessments levied by the Government Office.
"In the Sui Country, the tax is one-twentieth, which is relatively light, but the burden of corvée labor is extremely heavy. Every year, there is an obligation of one month, or half a month, of unpaid labor for the officials.
"It seems like not a long time. But how can the local Government Offices possibly adhere to this? They will inevitably conscript people indiscriminately, forcing them to build roads and canals for their households. They might even falsely claim the quality of the work is poor and demand rework. What should be one month of corvée labor thus turns into three or four months, causing the people to miss the agricultural season.
"Then there are the assessments: postal horses, water sprinkling, door maintenance, Chang Sui...
"When officials pass through, they are like locusts, finding countless reasons to extract money. This burden is distributed among the common people and assessed per area of land, so everyone has to pay.
"And if there is a delay, the village chief, the officials, and constables come with shackles to kick open the front door and take people away."
Yang Shijiu swept his gaze over the crowd below and emotionlessly said, "If one carefully calculates, a household with its own cultivated land, working from sunrise to sunset and exhausting all efforts, can barely maintain a livelihood throughout the year.
"Any encounter with a disaster year, or greedy officials, and they will immediately go bankrupt, falling into tenancy.
"Once one becomes a tenant farmer, it’s like a tree without roots, duckweed without water.
"In Fen State, those who have the most tenant farmers are not landlords or noble families, but the Jialan Sect."
He pointed to the monks holding staffs and said indifferently, "The Jialan Sect has tens of thousands of monks, more than half of whom are Martial Monks.
"It is known only those with a suitable Spirit Vein can pursue Cultivation. Most of these Martial Monks don’t have the potential for Cultivation. The martial arts they learn are not to confront other Sect’s Cultivators but to deal with tenant farmers.
"Tenant farmers who don’t pay rent on time, fine.
"Tenant farmers who hoard grain, beat.
"Tenant farmers who discuss privately, imprison.
"Tenant farmers with beautiful wives and daughters, take.
"This leads to the saying among the people: ’A good wife cultivates good fields; a bad wife cultivates poor fields.’
"Tens of thousands of tenant farmers are like tens of thousands of slaves, generation after generation serving as slaves to the Jialan Sect. Should they show any resentment, they meet with suppression—and often, it is not even necessary for the Jialan Monks to act personally.
"The Jianghu Sect you domesticate will do your bidding, ensuring that Buddha’s sons and Buddhist Disciples don’t incur too much blood on their hands.
"If it becomes a major disturbance, the Jialan Sect will then step in with an air of generosity, punishing some bullies that were initially fostered by you to quell the people’s anger.
"As for the Fen State Government, it was utterly inactive and even colluded with the Jialan Sect.
"The former ordered the Government Officials to increase corvée labor, deliberately causing self-cultivating farmers to miss their farming season, verge on bankruptcy, and become unable to pay their taxes and assessments.
"The latter took advantage of the situation to lend money at usurious interest rates, loan upon loan.
"Together, within a few years, self-cultivating families inevitably went bankrupt.
"At which point the Jialan Sect could buy up the land at low prices and continue to expand the ’Pure Land,’ ’Buddha Country’."
"Outrageous!" a Martial Monk couldn’t help exclaiming. "The profundity of Buddhism tolerates not your slander here!"
Yang Shijiu shook his head and said, "Slander? If there really were a Buddha in the world with boundless Mana, if the Buddha was as kind and generous as you claim, if Bodhisattvas had really once been alive as you describe—like that Weituo Bodhisattva statue—
"Then how could He allow you to commit such evil here?
"Shouldn’t you be locked away in Abyss Hell?
"Or do the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas approve of your actions, and consider that what you are doing is in line with the teachings of Buddhism?"
"..."
Abbot Lian Nan took a deep breath and said slowly, "You are not Yang Shijiu."
"Hahaha, of course, I’m not."
Yang Shijiu, or rather, the emaciated old man, said with a bitter smile, "Yang Shijiu was a devout follower of Zen, who lived as a submissive citizen his entire life. Even when rent collectors broke his legs and poisoned him mute, he remained foolishly loyal and faithful.
"How could I ever compare to such devotion?
"I am just a rebel who could not accept such a fate."
Perhaps because these words sounded somewhat familiar, a Martial Monk tried hard to recall and suddenly his eyes widened in shock, "Are you Scholar Lu?"
"Exactly, I am that unyielding Scholar Lu, who refuses to be the submissive citizen."
The gaunt old man nodded slowly, "I took the imperial examinations time and again without success, scorned by my fellow villagers as a mere scholar and reduced to a tenant farmer. Occasionally, I would write letters or copy books for some remuneration, but besides that, our household relied on my wife’s farming and sewing to get by.
"I truly wasn’t worthy of being a husband, nor a father.
"I went to the state examination and, with great difficulty, achieved the rank of scholar. But upon returning home, I learned a terrible truth: my wife, while trying to collect free porridge at a religious congregation, had accidentally bumped into a young monk of the Jialan Sect. Because of this, she was captured by members of a Jianghu Sect, thrown into jail, and tortured in myriad ways.
"My children were confined in our home and starved to death. At their death, their fingers were bloody and mangled; the wooden door was covered in deep scratch marks.
"Not one neighbor was willing to lend a hand—simply because that young monk was rumored to be the illegitimate child of the Jialan Abbot, too noble to speak of.
"When the news of me becoming a scholar spread, the Hall Master of that Jianghu Sect immediately came to apologize, returned my wife, and chopped off the hands of the enforcer.
"But what good did that do? My wife, holding the skeletal remains of our children, could not sleep at night and washed her face with tears daily, constantly blaming herself for their death, and before long, she died too.
"I heard that the ’slight punishment’ idea was conceived by that young monk.
"So, I sought justice.
"I rejected every matchmaker who came to the door and, holding the ashes of my wife and children, I ascended to the Jialan Sect for the first and second time, only to be politely sent back home.
"The third time, I was intercepted halfway up the mountain; someone put a cloth bag over my head, beat me brutally, then kicked me down the mountain.
"They told me ’not to push my luck.’
"I went to the Government Office seeking justice, but the official was bedridden and refused to see me.
"I went to the State Mansion seeking justice, but they instead claimed there was a problem with my examination paper and wanted to revoke my status as a scholar.
"I went to Chang’an seeking justice, only to be tied up, have one of my legs broken, and thrown into the river.
"I struggled onto the shore, thinking that even if I made it to Chang’an City, and even if I sounded the drum of Wannian County for redress, I would likely not get any justice—
"The Jialan Sect had the power to reach the heavens, and the final outcome
"would not be that I was wronged, but rather that it was the Jialan Sect, headed by the Zen elder, who was wronged, or the illegitimate child of the Abbot.
"So, I made a deal with a demon."
The old scholar took a cloth bag out of his bosom and gently untied it. Inside, it was filled with fine grains of sand. "That demon was omnipotent and, in exchange for my soul being scattered and unable to attain transcendence for all eternity,
"had me drink a bottle of blood,
"and endowed me with the ability to seek the justice I wanted.
"Does this sand look familiar to you, abbot?"
"This is..." Even Liao Wu, who usually showed no emotion, couldn’t help but change color. "Time Sand?"
"That’s right, the very treasure of your Jialan Sect—the Time Sand that was long lost."
The old scholar nodded, "Mahalekhituo came to the Central Plains not only with Scriptures but also brought a few Magic Artifacts supposedly left by the Buddha.
"The Time Sand has the effects of halting and reversing time,
"and combined with the Sumeru Hourglass in your sect’s treasury, one can turn the tides of the temporal river."
With these words, all who were present were astonished. Some were skeptical, some panicked, some shocked, and some greedy. This included Xia Jun and others.
In Li Ang’s heart, a tide of horror surged. He instantly thought of that mysterious, self-proclaimed powerful Huai Spirit in Chang’an City, as well as the salt-like grains in his own pocket that closely resembled the Time Sand.